Self-study
Support A favorable biography of a politician omits certain incriminating facts about the politician that were available to anyone when the book was written. ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █ ███████████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████
Summary
There was publicly available information about bad things a politician had done. A biographer, even if he claims he didn’t know about those facts, is responsible for readers being misled because he did not include them in the biography.
Notable Assumptions
The argument’s conclusion makes a claim about the author’s responsibility for the readers being misled, and the argument’s premises do not provide an explicit statement about why the author would be responsible even though he may not have known about the information that was omitted. We’re therefore looking for some principle that justifies that conclusion - that explains why the author is to blame for omitting the incriminating facts even if it’s true that he didn’t know about them.
4.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
An author of █ █████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████
Wrong trigger. The argument is about blame for omitting facts, not for whether the book is favorable or unfavorable.
b
An author of █ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████
Wrong trigger. The argument is about why the author is responsible even if he didn’t deliberately omit facts, but rather simply didn’t know about them.
c
An author of █ █████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ████ █████████ ███ ████████ █████
Wrong trigger. The argument is arguing the author should be blamed for omitting facts, and suggests these facts would not have supported the author’s favorable view.
d
An author of █ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████
Wrong trigger. The argument does not suggest that the author alone had access to these facts - it instead states that they were publicly available.
e
An author of █ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████
This explains why the author should be blamed for exactly what happened - he failed to include publicly available facts, and therefore the argument’s conclusion that he should be blamed is justified.